


a hollow space in reality

by darthpumpkinspice



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Inception (2010), Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Dreamsharing, F/M, Limbo, M/M, POV Second Person, dreams within dreams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 07:25:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9710993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthpumpkinspice/pseuds/darthpumpkinspice
Summary: There's something buried within Max. A truth he once knew, but chose to forget.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This was a super spur of the moment idea, just had the thought and had to write it! Thanks so much for reading, hope you enjoy despite the incredible weirdness!

You don’t sleep.

What you do is- you close your eyes. And there is a _pause_ in reality. The universe shudders to a grinding halt. The rust red sand and the bone dry emptiness of a fallen world fade away and you are left with…images. Dreams. Memories. Perhaps fragments of a life you used to live.

You don’t sleep. You’re so tired. It’s been so long so long so long-

You dream without sleeping, mind wide open and full of infinite horrors.

You open your eyes and the universe restarts. The brutal heat of the sun beats down onto you, punishing. The desert is bleached white, and half-life things skitter under the sand.

You think there is something in the distance. Something dark and ravenous, a hollow in the ground that swallows souls. You blink and it is gone. A mirage, you think. You continue to stare into the vastness that spreads before you. It looks…familiar. A shrine to an old pain, an old wound that keeps…pulsating. You rub your neck, disconcerted. A phantom heat races down the length of your spine.

 _Max_.

There is a woman behind you, and you turn, her name on your lips. She stands before you sinewy and nude, green eyes glinting in the black grease paint smeared across her face. She is crude elegance, hard edges and soft curves. You kiss her, run your hands down her shaven scalp. Your hands move roughly down the scars of her body, cupping her breasts, sliding down her stomach, arriving at the wet heat between her legs. You kneel before her, press your lips into her inner thigh as she moans lowly.

Max.

Is this your name? This is your only name here, but you think you have had many names.

She hisses your name more urgently, and you take her there, under the oppressive sun. You fuck her from behind and the present blurs with a memory until you think you are inside someone else- a dark-haired man. You shake your head and growl and the fragment fades. You finish, and she takes you into the quiet darkness of an old war rig. She lays herself beside you, murmurs your name.

You close your eyes. You do not sleep. Reality unwinds, bends, stops. Your thoughts slow, and you think you can hear your heart beating within your chest- is that your heart? Maybe it’s music, slowed and warped until it has become unrecognizable.

In your dreams you aren’t Max, and you aren’t a cop. You’re a criminal, you’re a forger, you’re a con artist, or you’re a monster… You’re a _necessary evil_.

The man from before is smiling at you, lips ghosting over your own. You try to say his name. You cannot remember which name to use.

You think you loved him. You think you were partners.

But-

Perhaps that is wrong. You think you despised him, tried to kill him. You think he was- You see a snowy city, and a bridge burning with the fiery outline of a bat.

You open your eyes. Existence unfurls back to life. With a muttered apology you quietly move past Furiosa, push yourself out of the rig. The sun has shifted positions and the desert that greets you is a sprawl of dark red. The mirage is back. Your face aches and your spine feels like it is being doused with fire.

You move towards the emptiness in the ground. The closer you get, the realer it seems to become. You think the darkness is shaped in stone.

A child climbs out of the hollow. She turns to you, and you know her. She says _my protector_ , in a language you can’t remember ever learning.

“What’s in there?”

She shakes her head, and when she smiles you think you see a woman instead of a girl. A cruel woman, dangerous and beautiful and vindictive.

The name comes to you and you choke it out: _Talia_.

She says nothing. Her eyes stare at something past you, in the horizon. Her gaze is empty.

You lurch forward to shake her, and you growl in frustration. “Tell me what’s in there.”

There are footsteps on the sand behind you, and you whirl around, bloodlust already gnawing inside your belly. The man from your fragments stands before you- _enemy, lover, partner, cop_ \- and you immediately tackle him to the ground. He head-butts you, and you see stars as you wrestle him back, pinning his arms above his head.

You stare at his face, and feel too many emotions- _confusion, rage, lust_ \- and you abruptly kiss him. You feel him tense and then soften underneath you.

“Who are you? Who am I?”

The man shakes himself free of you and runs a hand down your face, placating. “You know me.”

You point to the maw in the ground, the gaping dark wound in reality. “What’s in there?”

“Something you’ve buried. A truth you once knew, but chose to forget.”

Your breath stutters out of you.

The man (Arthur, John) pulls you toward him, kisses you gently, runs his hands through your hair. His lips move to your jugular and at the pulse of your neck and he whispers, “let me help you. Let me help you get free.”

You turn your gaze to the pit. You stand, walk towards it. It looks back at you, hungry and waiting. A thick rope snakes its way down inside.

“I’ll be here with you,” the man beside you says. “You won’t be alone.”

You nod. You brace yourself against the stone entrance for a moment, and then grab onto the rope and lower yourself in. You think you hear the swell of half-familiar music and you close your eyes. The world breaks, dissolves. You think you can feel the other man’s lips pressing to your throat, you think you can feel the warmth of his body wrapped around you.

You open your eyes.

Reality resumes.


End file.
